Obviously the 17 MBP has been discontinued...
Obviously sales were lagging, no company discontinues a "successful" product...

Has Apple ever done this before with the 17?

Is the product possibly "on-break" while the technology catches up to increase resolution further for a 17 rather than just for a 15? Ex: 1680x1050 for a 15 and roughly 1900 x1200 for a 17, see my point?

I have a 2011 17"MBP with 256GB of SSD I put it in. (I have an external Thunderbolt drive.) I think I will hold on to it for a bit. I'll be there will be a few people who may want one in a year or so. Then I'll sell it and get the second generation Retina MBP. ;-)